Daily Sports

They nicknamed him Hollywood and the Australian larrikin has certainly lived up to it.

Shane Keith Warne's life has followed the most unlikely script, captivating and polarising sports fans around the world.

From humble beginnings in suburban Melbourne, Warne became one of the greatest players cricket has seen and revitalised the dying art of wrist-spin bowling.

His brilliance as a player is without dispute.

A sharp slip fielder and underrated batsmen with a highest Test score of 99, Warne's real flair was with the ball.

In a 16-year-long career, the leg-spinning great claimed 708 Test wickets and 293 ODI wickets.

He tormented, and occasionally made fools of, the greatest batsmen in history with his wonderful bag of tricks, including the flipper, the googly, the slider, the top spinner and his stock ball, the leg break.

His personal life, though, has been full of turbulence.

His dream of skippering Australia ended in 2000 when he was stripped of the vice-captaincy for sending lewd text messages to an English nurse, and he separated from his wife Simone in 2005 following media reports of his infidelities.

He was fined by the Australian Cricket Board in 1995 after admitting that he took money from a man associated with an Indian bookmaker for providing information about pitches and weather, although the case was hushed up for three years.

Warne was also sent home from South Africa on the eve of the 2003 World Cup after failing a drugs test that earned him a 12-month ban.

Post his retirement from international cricket, he proved his leadership abilities by leading the Rajasthan Royals to an unlikely triumph in the inaugural IPL.

The most recent sighting of Warne was with estranged wife Simone in the casino capital of the world Las Vegas.

Fitting, isn't it, for someone whose life has been one enthralling gamble.